In June of 2007, 7 friends left the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia on a trip to Nepal. Our mission was to deliver a painting of an amazing man in a remote village which sits at 12,000 feet in the Himalayas. The film that documents this cultural exchange is now finished, and in the summer of 2010, it was carried back to Nepal and shown there. The film premiered in the US on September 16 at the Taubman Museum in Roanoke before beginning a new journey around the country.

Upcoming Shows

We've been named as a official selection in the Southern Circuit of Filmmakers Tour, March 17-24.Shows are in Hapeville, GA 3/17, Madison, GA 3/20, Orangeburg, SC 3/22, Gainsville, GA 3/23, and Manteo, NC 3/24.Learn more by going to the SouthArts blog.

View the theatrical trailer for A Gift for the Village

Monday, June 28, 2010

From Reba

Namaste Everyone!Sorry it took us so long to blog, but when we came last night to do it, I had the password wrong and couldn't get in. The trip over was long, and we had to endure security checks of our bags at every single airport, even though we were in transit and had not left the airport since our last flight, we still had to put our bags through xray and walk through the metal detectors. When we finally arrived in Kathmandu, the gentleman who was manning the xray machine would not let Ella and Mary put their bags on the belt, he just motioned for them to walk on through, smiling sweetly at them.Sunil and Sarita were waiting on us when we arrived at the airport, seeing them brought lots of hugs and a few tears of joy. Sunil rode with us the to the Kathmandu Guest House where we checked in then walked to Swyambunath (spelling is iffy) where we walked up 403 steps.(yes, we counted) But after all that time sitting on the plane it was good to walk. We saw many sights along the way, including a huge pig rummaging through a large pile of garbage (their refuse system needs work) and several monkeys with babies. (We got video!)Yesterday we went to Bhaktapur (again the spelling!) which is a very old village in Kathmandu. The buildings there are over 500 years old! I love this place, because this is where I met the sweetest kids when I was here the last time, and this time was no different. This tiny little girl with a red dress approached us and asked for a rupee or a "sweet". I couldn't resist her, she was so little, and cute, and bold. So I gave her a coin and asked if I could take her picture...she happily obliged. I have a great shot of Ella with her.I also ended up buying another singing bowl because I just could not say no to this man who I'm sure was selling me a sad story about how he had NO business that day and he was selling it to me at his cost. (yeah, right!) But he was so sweet about following me up the street, dropping the price from 1000 rupees to 700 that I could not say no to him. Today is Jenna's birthday! We had lunch at Pilgrims which is a bookstore near the guest house that has a restaurant in the back. After an interesting conversation between Emerson and Ella about greek mythology (Ella's knowledge came from watching the Percy Jackson movie)Jane created two new goddesses of her own: Dialysis and Sarasquatter. Those of you who know Jane can imagine the relevance of those names. Please ask her about them when you see her. :)Our first movie premiere is in about 20 minutes, so we have to get back to the guest house. Mary and Ella are treated special wherever we go, they even got little gifts from the clerk at Pilgrims when we checked out.They are both doing GREAT. I am so proud of them, although I give Emerson most of the credit for them being happy here so far. All our love to everyone.Reba

2 comments:

Reba - so glad to see a blog from you finally! And so happy that Mary and Ella are doing so well also! It sounds like your trip is off to a great start. Can't wait to hear more about it as the summer continues. You aren't missing a lot here in Bburg except for a lot of heat!

Thanks Reba. I enjoyed hearing about your first day and also reunitng with Sunil and Sarita. Give the girls lots of hugs from me. I've been having trouble blogging too, and I think most of my initial responses are somewhere in cyberspace, but hopefully I have it figured out now. Give belated birthday wishes to Jenna!